Radio frequency identification tags (RF tags) are utilized in a wide variety of applications: inventory control; tracking personnel within a facility; secured access control; locating stored articles; etc. As business and industry become more dependant upon RF tagging, the population of tags within a given area or facility increases correspondingly.
For example, the arrival of a large quantity of inventory at a storage facility can introduce a proportionate number of individual RF tags (each including a unique identification, as well as other possible data) which require scanning so as to be recorded in the relevant database. The time required to perform this scanning under established methods can be formidable, in view of the quantity of tags to be scanned and recorded.
As another example, RF tags may be affixed to luggage at an airport at the time of traveler check-in. Under such a circumstance, it is important to quickly route a tagged article to the corresponding aircraft, often with a number of other articles, by way of conveyors, luggage trains, handling personnel, etc., and to verify that each article has arrived at the proper aircraft. It is desirable under such time-critical conditions to automatically scan and verify each of several pieces of luggage as they are being loaded, freeing handling personnel from the scanning task.
What is needed is a system and method for expeditious, automatic scanning and identification of a plurality of RF tags within the working proximity of a reader, such as in scenarios where the reader does not know the identities of the tags present in the field and sequential polling is therefore not an option.